by Roman aka jar

today there is another Miniatures Unpacked.
This time it is number 32.
If you are interested in more, click here!

Last week a parcel from Latvia dropped in and the big one was containing three small ones:

The models are from the company "NorthStarModels" and are said to be 54 mm SciFi Figures. After I have made a Miniatures Unpacked of their 54 mm Dragonslayer I was corious now and opened up the boxes with a big grin as I saw what is in there:

Well first impression is totally wow! Second was: They look very, very similar to Mass Effect Characters (computer game) and that is sooo cool! And third, damn this is some good quality!

After some check on the figures, I saw that they are definatly 3D-printed in a very good quality. You can see yourself on the photos. With each figure - yes, there are three different ones - comes variable options for their equipment and their heads (not the last one, she got only one head). Additional to every figure you will recieve a plinth that looks like this:

First figure I did unpack is named "Savior of Galaxy (Female)". There are some small mould lines and remains from the print, but they are easily to clean. Two different weapon options and three different head options. Very cool!

That figure really got me and I prepared her for painting, with the helmet option. The fitting of the different parts was excellent and went pretty easy.

The next one I did unpack was the "Savior of Galaxy" (Male).
Two weapon and two head options:

I did not prepare him for painting yet, but I am sure the day will come someday.
The next and last one I did unpack was the so called "Alien Girl":

Well, I think the photos speak for themselves.

If you enjoy SciFi Figures these ones are really cool ones. I am not sure about the copyright as for example in Germany we have very strict rules of copyright. For me it is clearly visible that these characters are from the game "Mass Effect" and as I am working as a freelance artist I respect the copyright of others to the max. I think in Latvia the rules and laws are different and I could not resist these figures as I so much did love playing the game. What is your oppinion about that or do you know more? I can say the quality of the casts is A+.

Check these links to NorthStarModels if you want to get some of those cool SciFi figures yourself.

It would be interesting to know where the digital files came from. It's certainly possible to rip files from computer games and print the figures (it has been done with very poor results in the past) but I don't know if it's possible to do it to such high quality as seen here. Perhaps it's more likely they are just very, very close copies of the original digital figures. Still disappointing though.

It's obviously a "derivative work" which requires the copyright holders permission, at least under US copyright law. I have no idea what international copyright law says, but I would bet that it's a copyright violation.

Personally, I don't care about the copyright violation, as EA made plenty off of Mass Effect, and it's not like this is costing them anything (unless they were planning on selling their own line of miniatures, which I very much doubt). Copyright law is such a mess anyways.

However, it does mean there's a decent chance that this company will get shut down (or required to stop selling these miniatures at least) because of the copyright violation. So if people are interested in the figures, you might want to get them quickly before this happens.

David has it right. It's like pornography, you can't define it, but you know that something is pornography when you look at it. If you look at something and say: "That's a Mass Effect model!" It's generally safe to call it a copyright violation.

This would be similar to copying all the text of Lord of the Rings, changing the names of all the characters, and selling it as "The Quest of the Ring". A clear copyright violation.

This looks like they took the models from the game and tweaked them to work as 3D prints in small scale.

Though it is hard to feel sorry for the most hated corporation the world.

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